The latest on Boo Corrigan and AD search

I know some of you purposely avoid the message board chatter, but I thought the Boo Corrigan news and gossip merited its own post. Over the weekend, a very reliable and consistently accurate BC message board poster "BC West" posted on Eagle Action and Eagle Outsider that BC is in final negotiations with Boo Corrigan. He said that if the sides cannot come to agreement that BC will then move on to Xavier AD Mike Bobinski. BC will announce the new hire within a matter of days.

Corrigan was one of BC's first targets and came with a strong endorsement from John Swofford. However, he did initially rebuff BC. He felt that it was too soon into his Army tenure and he wasn't looking to make a move. Army offered more money, so he waffled. But BC kept the dialogue going and Corrigan became more interested.

If this comes together and Corrigan is the new AD, I will consider the process a success. BC made a major change right before the start of the school year and landed a solid replacement for Gene in less than six weeks. As for Corrigan as the new leader, I will post a full assessment when things are official.

Other BC voices

As the BC blogosphere and twitterverse have grown, we all seem to be commenting on the same topics. But there are some unique voices out there that might get lost in the noise. Here are some other BC folks who at times are overlooked or not given enough credit. Follow their work for insight, passion and humor.

BCMike: twitter and BC Draft. Mike is a fellow Georgia transplant and has been active on various BC message boards and platforms for years.

Dave Levy: twitter and Heights and Lows. Dave's twitter feed is not exclusively BC sports, but it is media and sports heavy. Heights and Lows takes a more lighthearted approach to BC sports.

The Heights: twitter and tumblr. The Heights Sports section is in the middle of a great run. For the past six or seven years they've been building their depth, improving their reporting and breaking more news.

Greg Joyce: twitter. Greg will edit the Heights Sports section next football season. With the fate of Spaz, Gene and the ACC in play, the Fall will not lack for storylines or news.

Stephen Sikora: twitter. Another Heights Sports staff writer. He live tweets during games.

Austin Tedesco: twitter. Austin closed the school year with a strong Steve Donahue interview.

Prof. Ed Taylor: ETEagle Blog. CSOM Accounting Professor and die hard BC fan.

Eric Hoffses: twitter. As I've said before, I am not a fan of Eagle Action, but I am a fan of Hoffses. He is easily the best guy covering -- not just commentating on -- BC sports.

Soaring to Glory: Blog. Their individual previews of the players are worth the read.

Around the Res: Blog. They are the only ones who can get Gene to answer their questions!

I know I didn't cover everyone. If there is someone or some blog that I overlooked, please add it in the comments section.

Defilippo cancels interview with Eagle Action

For better or worse, Eagle Action has been the largest and longest-serving independent BC-focused media outlet. They've produced some great work and some equally appalling apologia over the years. Rarely have their editors or lead writers been at the forefront of BC criticism. If anything some of their writers over the years have been considered mouthpieces for certain BC coaches and personalities. That is why Gene Defilippo's decision to cancel his interview with Eagle Action is so surprising.

The interview was scheduled for last Friday with Eagle Action Founder and Publisher Mike Rutstein. Rutstein announced this today:

“Several of you had asked about my annual interview with Gene DeFilippo, which was scheduled for last Friday and which I had hoped to start posting here this week.

Unfortunately, Gene had to cancel our meeting on Friday. In talking to him today about rescheduling, it became clear that he didn't consider this to be a good time for us to sit down. I had sent him a preview of my questions and he seemed disappointed with some of the backward-looking questions about the football program. He held out the possibility of an interview in the fall when Boston College supporters would have the prospect of a new football season ahead of them.

Thanks to those of you who suggested questions for the interview. I hope to follow up in the fall."

If Gene is upset with the tone from an Eagle Action softy, what is he going to do when the Hot Seat talk heats up? Like any leader who has been held a position for 15 years, Gene has made some mistakes. If he doesn't want to address issues from the past, he should at least do it within the confines of an interview. Then he can brush off whatever Rutstein might have asked and steer the question back to his desired talking point. It is media training 101. Cancelling just looks like he has something to hide or no vision for the future.

Unless Spaz pulls a huge turnaround, he is coaching his last season at BC. If Gene wants to lead the process of hiring a new coach, he needs to be out front. He needs to show that he understands where he went wrong and what type of coach BC needs for the future. If he doesn't do that, the BC fans and boosters will just assume that Gene is going to screw up the search again.

Questioning Win Homer's new star

I am suspicious of BC recruit Win Homer's bump from three star to four star on Rivals.com. Earlier this week, Rivals updated its Rivals 250 and the Virginia OL prospect debuted at 248. Previously Rivals gave Homer three stars, listed him as the 51st best tackle and the 12th best player out of Virginia. Even though he now has four stars plenty of players above him in his position ranking and in his state ranking still only carry three stars.

The three other major services, Scout, 247Sports and ESPN have not altered their rankings of Homer. Why was Homer bumped and why now? He hasn't played since the last ranking. He hasn't received any new offers that we know of. My suspicion is that a BC-friendly evaluator gave a BC-bound prospect a bump to help BC's overall ranking and offset some of the bad news on the recruiting front. In a potential quid pro quo, BC gets an artificial improvement to its class and the largest BC recruiting news site continues to keep a good relationship with Spaz and staff.

Let me state that I am not accusing all of Eagle Action (Rivals's BC site) of juicing the stats. In fact, I think Eric Hoffses is the best BC beat writer around. I also think Adam Rose is a rising star on the BC media scene. My long problem with Eagle Action has been with Mike Farrell and his willingness to color outside the lines when it comes to BC recruiting.

As I have always said, rankings really shouldn't matter. It is a subjective, man-made measurement. There may be a correlation with rankings and success, but I don't believe there is causation. BC's talent should be judged by how it does on the field. Who and how we bring in talent is important. What outsiders think of that talent is meaningless.

Homer may be the best member of this BC class. I hope Rivals collectively found something in his tapes or recruiting to make them think he will be a star. If they were throwing a bone to Spaz, then all they did was tease BC fans...again.

A word on recruiting violations and BC websites

Eagle Action posted an article (since removed) on the two Cincinnati recruits and their upcoming visit. In the article their former St. Xavier teammate Luke Kuechly said this: "My main thing that I'm going to be very honest with them about things." Silly and innocent as it seems, that is an NCAA recruiting violation. The official rule states that schools, players and/or team official cannot speak to any media about specific recruits until after signing day. What happened with Eagle Action is very, very minor and shouldn't be a big concern. BC probably self reported the violation so that no one else would blow the whistle on them and make it look worse.

Although I personally haven't done any recruiting reporting for Scout.com since my affiliation with Eagle Insider, Scout has made clear any potential hazards and asked me to hammer home those tricky NCAA gray areas to my contributors (first the BC Draft crew and then the other Scout guys). My interaction with BC folks on recruiting was equally stringent. They wouldn't even broach specifics. That's why this mistake from Eagle Action is so surprising. I've had my issues with EA in the past, but I will give them credit for having the most in-depth BC recruiting coverage for a decade now. They should have known better.

When the smoke clears, I don't think anything will come of this. If we don't close on Duggan and Daniels it will most likely be about the program and not the websites.

FAQs from Atlanta

I enjoyed meeting or reconnecting with many of you on Saturday. A couple of questions came up and I just want to clarify a few things.

Do I hate Eagle Action and the posters there?

I don’t hate the Eagle Action posters. On the contrary, I like and know many of them. I haven’t been frequenting the EA boards much, but it has little to do with the posters. As for the Eagle Action writers, it is a mixed bag. Mike Shalin was always nice to me when I was a student and did a good job for the Herald. Steve Conroy does a good job with the Herald and is a very good writer. The other guys I don’t read enough to have a strong opinion on. I do not care for Mike Farrell and I’ve explained myself repeatedly here. I also don’t care for Eagle Action’s founder Mike Rutstein. Eagle Action hit its lowpoint with me during the coaching search when they threw out tons of rumors under fake bylines and outright plagiarized a few other papers. Because that shoddy work was done under pennames, you’ll never really get to the bottom of things (but I don’t blame Conroy or Shalin). Maybe things will get better with Yahoo’s acquisition of Rivals. Until then, I’ll keep my distance from certain parts of EA.

Am I going to start a Amazon wish list, take donations, etc?

While I appreciate the comments, I don’t do this for the money. This is a hobby and AOL and my fulltime job keep me comfortable. If you feel the need to “pay” for this content please give to the BC fund in your own name or click on my google ads every once in a while.

Where did I get the pants?

The pants are catching on. I saw four others wearing them Saturday. You can get your own at Pennington & Bailes.

Did Rivals forget or overrate BC?

Normally I don’t pay too much attention to preseason polls, but growing intrigue about the Rivals preseason Top 50 had me take a closer look.

Rivals is breaking down the Top 50 teams in college football. They release a new team every day. Wednesday’s team was No. 17 Tennessee. There are 16 spots to be revealed and the following teams have not been included yet (I’ve assigned them numbers not as a ranking but just to illustrate how many slots are left):

1. USC
2. LSU
3. Texas
4. Oklahoma
5. Florida
6. Auburn
7. Georgia
8. Ohio State
9. West Virginia
10. Louisville
11. Penn State
12. Michigan
13. Cal
14. Virginia Tech
15. Wisconsin

Those 15 teams are not in the current Rivals rankings but have been in nearly every preseason Top 25 lists. I expect them all to be included in Rivals. That leaves one spot unaccounted for in the Rivals list. Is it BC?

Surprised by a potential high ranking yet concerned about a slight, I looked at other preseason polls and tried to see who else might be missing. Going through Phil Steele’s, Athlon Sports and The Sporting News’ preseason magazines, only two other programs appear in anyone’s Top 50 that are not accounted for in Rivals list. Those schools, Southern Miss and Utah, do not appear anywhere near as high as Top 16. In these same publications, BC is ranked 28th in the Sporting News, 27th in Athlon, and 41st** in Phil Steele’s.

It looks like BC is going to be in Rivals Top 16. I’d be encouraged by the enthusiasm but it will certainly draw some criticism from other fan groups. For Rivals sake I hope BC is in their Top 16, because excluding them would be sloppy. Working on the blogpoll and now at the FanHouse, I understand how a (presumably) collaborative list like this could have a mistake or two, but omitting BC would be bad. Sure BC has a new head coach, however, this year’s team returns the majority of its starters and has two veteran, respected coordinators. We are arguably a Top 25 team and a definite Top 50 team.

I’ve had problems with certain Rivals subsites in the past, so nothing would shock me at this point. Since all of these rankings are just about perception and offseason water cooler talk, part of me hopes for exclusion. A slap like that would give Jags some really good bulletin board material for summer practices. Either way, Rivals unorthodox Top 50 has done the one thing their editors wanted – got people talking.

UPDATE: As reader Brian pointed out, Steele did not have BC in his Top 50, however, Steele covers his ass hedges by ranking BC 41 in his Power Ranking.